Tie In Overtime At Home for BYU

Jessica Ringwood had four shots on the night against the Owls. (Photo by Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)

PROVO, Utah - The No. 20 BYU women’s soccer team recorded its second tie on the season after a close fight with Rice ended 0-0 on BYU’s South Field, Saturday.

“We knew from our game last year that they’re a really good team and a team that is always hungry,” said BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood. “That’s what we took from last year, they kind of out hustled us and played with more desire and hunger and they did that tonight. Although in the second half we had the ball a little bit more, it just wasn’t enough.”

Junior Jessica Ringwood led the Cougars with four shots, two coming late in the second 10-minute overtime period and just inches off frame. Julia Barrow had three shots for the Owls.

With four saves on the night, senior goalkeeper McKinzie Olson now has 237 saves for BYU and is only 24 away from becoming the Cougars’ all-time career saves leader.

The first and second halves proved to be a close battle as neither team was able to find the back of the net. Each team had taken eight shots at the end of regulation in an attempt to put a score on the board before heading into overtime.

BYU moves to 4-2-1 on the season while Rice sits at 4-1-2.

The Cougars travel to Stillwater, OK, Thursday, Sept. 15, to take on No. 4 Oklahoma State.

“For us to not be able to get our shots off in the first 45 minutes, we really wasted that time and opportunity. It’s especially disappointing considering we played so well our last game. As coaches I guess we didn’t do our job because our team wasn’t prepared to play today. We’ll have to address that and especially with the starting group, they just weren’t prepared to play. You have to be your best when you play against good teams and Rice is a good team. They took away most of our offense and we’re used to getting some more looks and more shots. They took it away from us and we couldn’t solve the problem.”

“I told them it was a disappointing performance. Being on our own field, at home, with the great fans that we get and the support we have, to not play our best is disappointing. You work hard for these moments and as coaches you put in a lot of time for these moments. We weren’t prepared to be our best tonight and you can’t expect to have success when you’re not your best.”

“I asked the girls what they did to prepare for the game because whatever it was, it wasn’t appropriate. So much of the game is mental and you need to be prepared to come out and fight. I thought Rice was better prepared and more hungry and more disciplined. Defensively, they were more disciplined and gave us problems with the attacks. I give a lot of credit to them. We have a lot of work to do these couple days before we play the fourth-ranked team in the country. I’m confident that we can turn it around and we’ll be able to bounce back. I'm hoping these girls get really hungry and excited to play against Oklahoma State on Thursday night.”

Junior Colette Jepson

“It feels like a loss tonight. We need to keep possession of the ball more. For myself, I played 110 minutes and couldn’t get it in the goal so I definitely take responsibility for it.”

“We have a great coaching staff, they’re able to pick out our little flaws and were able to fix it during the half. That’s why I think this team is such a good team as a whole because we can fix what’s wrong but we need to come out like that in the first half.”

“When I was playing in the middle we struggled to find our marking but we did that better in the second half.”